National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams – 12th November 2018

Burial urn of Megalithic era unearthed

Topic: History, Art and Culture

IN NEWS: A huge burial urn dating back to the Megalithic era that was unearthed while clearing a private road to a house at Hydermettu, near Nedumkandam, recently is believed to be one of the major findings that would shed light on life in the pre-historic era on the western side of the Western Ghats.

What are enemy properties:

• The urn is said to be the largest one unearthed from the region so far. It is 3-ft wide at its mouth and its shape is a variant of other ones explorated in the district. Moreover, there are art works on it — a pointer to the cultural awareness of a society that belonged to the pre-historic period.

More on the Topic:

• The urn is said to be the largest one unearthed from the region so far. It is 3-ft wide at its mouth and its shape is a variant of other ones explorated in the district. Moreover, there are art works on it — a pointer to the cultural awareness of a society that belonged to the pre-historic period.
• A large number of burial urns have been unearthed from Ramakkalmedu, Mundieruma and Puzhpakandam nearby in the recent past. However, they were comparatively small in size and do not have notable decorative works.
• The burial urns unearthed from the region belonged to 1,00 BCE and 500 BCE. Some of the urns have remains of iron weapons and pieces of bones. “Their period can be known only through carbon dating.

Significance of the discovery:

• The importance is that the findings in the hinterland of the erstwhile Muziris port is valuable evidence of a culturally-oriented society. The new finding is on the hill area bordering Tamil Nadu and believed to be linked to a settled life there. Burial urns, dolmen and hero stones are spread over a large area on the western side of the Western Ghats.
• Though individual studies were conducted in the past, specific studies and research are needed to throw light on the importance of these historical remains.

What are Megaliths:

• The term ‘megalith’ comes from two Greek words, megas meaning big and lithos meaning stone. This is actually a blanket term which incorporates different kinds of monuments built by primitive societies, all over the ancient world. They have just one thing in common- they are all made from large, roughly dressed slabs of stone. In most cases these structures were meant to house graves above the ground.
• Megaliths were constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral) memorials. The former are sites with actual burial remains, such as dolmenoid cists (box-shaped stone burial chambers), cairn circles (stone circles with defined peripheries) and capstones (distinctive mushroom-shaped burial chambers found mainly in Kerala).
• The urn or the sarcophagus containing the mortal remains was usually made of terracotta. Non-sepulchral megaliths include memorial sites such as menhirs. (The line separating the two is a bit blurry, since remains have been discovered underneath otherwise non-sepulchral sites, and vice versa.)

Megaliths  India

• Megaliths are spread across the Indian subcontinent, though the bulk of them are found in peninsular India, concentrated in the states of Maharashtra (mainly in Vidarbha), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
• According to archaeologists R.K. Mohanty and V. Selvakumar, around 2,200 megalithic sites can be found in peninsular India itself, most of them unexcavated. Even today, a living megalithic culture endures among some tribes such as the Gonds of central India and the Khasis of Meghalaya.
• This item must have had some religious and ideological connotation of life or death as accepted by the megalithic people.

Source: PIB

World leaders mark 100 years since WWI Armistice in Paris

Topic: World History

IN NEWS: World leaders gathered in Paris will lead global commemorations to mark 100 years since the end of World War I at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions.

More on World War 1:

• World War I (often abbreviated as WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918.
• Contemporaneously described as the “war to end all wars”,it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history.

Causes of the First World War

• Group 1 (Allies): Serbia, Russia, Britian, France, USA, Belgium, Portugal, Romania etc
• Group 2 (Central Powers): Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria etc.
• War on Western Side: Battle of Marne.
• War on Eastern Side: Battle of Tennenberg (Russia was defeated).
• War on the Sea: Batter of Dogger Bank (Germany was defeated), Battle of Jutland (Germany retreated).
• USA entered in 1917.
• Russia withdrew in 1917 after October Revolution.
• Treaty of Versailles, Paris
• Germany signed a treaty with Allies (Triple Entente) on 28th June 1919. It was signed at Versailles, near Paris. (14 points)
• Leaders: Clemenceau – France, Lloyd George – Britain, Woodrow Wilson – USA, Orlando – Italy.
• Treaties after World War I
• Treaty of Paris – with Germany.
• Treaty of St.Germaine – with Austria.
• Treaty of Trianon- with Hungary.
• Treaty of Neuilly – with Bulgaria.
• Treaty of Severes – with Turkey.

Consequences of First World War

• Rule of King ended in Germany: Germany became a republic on November 1918. The German Emperor Kaiser William II fled to Holland.
• Around 1 crore people were killed,Unemployment ,famine and epidemics.
• The fall of Russian empire after October revolution (1917) which resulted in the formation of USSR (1922)
• Emergence of USA as a super power.
• Beginning of the end of European supremacy.
• Japan became a powerful country in Asia.
• Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia became new independent states.
• Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithvania – became independent.
• Rule of Ottamans came to an end in Turkey.
• New boundary lines were drawn for Austria, Germany and Turkey.
• Strengthened independence movements in Asia and Africa.
• League of Nations came into being.
• Germany had to return Alsace-Loraine to France.
• German colonies were shared.
• Germany gave up Saar coal field.
• Germany gave up Polish corridor, and made city of Danzig independent.
• Monarchy was abolished in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Turkey and Russia.
• The harsh clauses of the Treaty of Versailles finally resulted in the second world war.

Source:The Hindu

World’s largest brain-like supercomputer switched on for first time

Topic: Science and Technology

In news: The world’s largest supercomputer designed to work in the same way as the human brain has been switched on for the first time.

More on the Topic:

• The newly formed million-processor-core Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) machine is capable of completing more than 200 million million actions per second, with each of its chips having 100 million transistors.
• To reach this point it has taken 15 million in funding, 20 years in conception and over 10 years in construction, with the initial build starting way back in 2006, according to a statement.
• The SpiNNaker machine, designed and built in The University of Manchester in the UK, can model more biological neurons in real time than any other machine on the planet.
• Biological neurons are basic brain cells present in the nervous system that communicate primarily by emitting ‘spikes’ of pure electro-chemical energy.
• Neuromorphic computing uses large scale computer systems containing electronic circuits to mimic these spikes in a machine.
• SpiNNaker is unique because, unlike traditional computers, it does not communicate by sending large amounts of information from point A to B via a standard network.
• Instead it mimics the massively parallel communication architecture of the brain, sending billions of small amounts of information simultaneously to thousands of different destinations.
• “SpiNNaker completely re-thinks the way conventional computers work.

Significance:

• One of the fundamental uses for the supercomputer is to help neuroscientists better understand how our own brain works. It does this by running extremely large scale real-time simulations which simply aren’t possible on other machines.
• Neuroscientists can now use SpiNNaker to help unlock some of the secrets of how the human brain works by running unprecedentedly large scale simulations.

Source: The Hindu

Point calimere Wildlife Sanctuary

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In news: The water quality at the Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary might be unsafe for avifauna to feed and breed, notes a study that examined different pollution indicators in water. Researchers from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli compared their results with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) standards to reach this conclusion.

More on the Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary

• Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary (PCWBS) is a protected area in Tamil Nadu, South India along the Palk Strait where it meets the Bay of Bengal at Point Calimere at the southeastern tip of Nagapattinam District.
• The sanctuary was created in 1967 for conservation of the near threatened blackbuck antelope, an endemic mammal species of India.
• It is famous for large congregations of waterbirds, especially greater flamingos.
• The sanctuary, located adjacent to and east of Kodaikarai and Kodaikadu villages, is basically an Island surrounded by the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Palk Straight to the south and swampy backwaters and salt pans to the west and north.
• PCWBS forms the easternmost and most biologically diverse part of Ramsar Site no. 1210 which, on 19 August 2002, was declared a place of international importance for the conservation of waterbirds and their wetlands habitats. This 385-square-kilometre (149 sq mi) site comprises PCWBS, Panchanadikulam Wetland, Unsurveyed Salt swamp, Thalainayar Reserved Forest and Muthupet Mangroves. It is all part of the Great Vedaranyam Swamp, except the reserved forest

Source:The Hindu

INSPIRE Scheme

Topic: Government Policies

In news:The second edition of was International Symposium to Promote Innovation & Research in Energy Efficiency (INSPIRE 2018) launched in New Delhi. It was j ointly organised by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) and World Bank.

More on the Topic

• The three-day symposium will focus on enhancing grid management, e-Mobility, financial instruments and technologies for energy efficiency in India.
• Innovations in the field of energy efficiency are critical to meet our GHG (green house gases) emission targets .
• The occasion also witnessed gave away of awards to four path breaking innovations in clean energy and energy efficiency as part of #InnovateToINSPIRE, a first-of-its-kind energy innovation challenge.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL)

• Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) is an energy service company (ESCO) of the Government of India and is the world’s largest public ESCO. It is 100% government owned, a joint venture of state-owned NTPC Limited, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and POWERGRID.
• EESL was formed under India’s Ministry of Power to facilitate energy efficiency projects. Innovative business and implementation models can significantly reduce consumption and costs.
• EESL also acts as the resource centre for capacity building of state electricity distribution companies, electricity regulatory commissions (ERCs), state-designated agencies (SDAs), upcoming ESCOs, financial institutions, etc.

Source:The Hindu

National Education Day

Topic: Miscellaneous

In news: National Education Day commemorates the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad who was also the first Union Minister of Education for India.

More on the Topic:

• Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad believed that education was for one and all. He was responsible for setting up of apex bodies such as AICTE and UGC. IITs, IISc and School of Architecture and Planning were also his brainchild.
• Not just primary education and literacy but, Azad was also instrumental in promotion of culture and literature through education. Most of the cultural and literary academies we see today such as Lalit Kala Academy, Sahitya Academy etc. were established by him.

Source: PIB

Ladakh restoration project wins UNESCO award

Topic: Awards and Honours

In news: Restoration of an aristocratic house from a state of partial ruin in Ladakh has won an UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for conservation, the world body announced.

More on the Topic:

• While the Ladakh project won in the category of Award of Distinction under UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, rejuvenation of an university clock tower and a fountain in Mumbai have have jointly received Honourable Mention, along with a project in China.
• The LAMO Center in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region was chosen for its systematic restoration project that used salvaged and local building materials, and indigenous construction techniques while adroitly introducing modern amenities to assure its ongoing use, UNESCO Bangkok said in a statement.